• Full Program Announced for 2014 Durban International Film Festival

    durban film film festival 2014

    2014 sees the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) return for its 35th year to celebrate the wonder and diversity of global cinema. From 17 to 27 July, Durban will be lit by the glow of the silver screen, with over 250 screenings in 9 venues across the city. Alongside this smorgasbord of the best of contemporary cinema from around the planet, including 69 feature films, 60 documentaries, 57 short films and 19 surf films, the festival offers a comprehensive workshop and seminar programme that facilitates the sharing of knowledge and skills by film industry experts. 

    This year’s diverse line-up of world-class cinema includes a key focus on 20 years of freedom and democracy in South Africa, as well as a snapshot of contemporary British film and various focus areas. DIFF 2014 includes a generous selection of feature films, cutting edge documentaries, eight packages of short films and a selection of thrilling surf films in the Wavescape Film Festival. This year also sees the return of Durban Wild Talk Africa, which includes a selection of the best environmentally themed films from around the world, as well as the second edition of ‘The Films That Made Me’, in which an acclaimed director introduces five films that have been important to their growth as a filmmaker . 

    South African Focus

    The ever-expanding African film industry will once more be represented at DIFF 2014, although South African film retains its key focus, with 40 feature-length films and 38 short films – most of them receiving their world premieres on Durban screens, and collectively representing by far the largest number of South African films in DIFF’s history.

    This year’s opening night film see the world premiere of Hard to Get, the electrifying feature debut from South African filmmaker Zee Ntuli, who has already received critical acclaim for his short films. The story of the mercurial relationship between a handsome young womaniser and a beautiful, reckless petty criminal, Hard to Get is fuelled by a bewitching visual poetry. Other high-profile South African films being showcased include the engaging thriller Cold Harbour, Between Friends, which recounts a reunion between old varsity friends, Hear Me Move, a locally flavoured dance movie, and Love the One you Love, which explores a constellation of relationships between young South Africans.

    Then there’s the Tyler Perry-flavoured Two Choices, The Two of Us which tells of a relationship between two siblings, and Icehorse, a surreal mystery drama set in the Netherlands from South African director Elan Gamaker. Young Ones is a dystopian down-beat sci-fi flick directed by Jake Paltrow, produced by Spier Films and shot in South Africa, while the French/South African co-production Zulu explores the unhealed wounds of the new South Africa. Finally, DIFF is very proud to present the 1973 film Joe Bullet, the first work to benefit from the Gravel Road legacy project, which aims to restore films lost in the dusty archives of apartheid.

    African Focus

    The rich programme of films from elsewhere on the continent includes a number of artistically and politically brave directorial voices that are unafraid to experiment with form or content. The bewitching and high experimental Bloody Beans recounts the Algerian revolution using a band of young children as its medium of expression, while the utterly charming and super-low-budget Beti and Amare is an Ethiopian vampire film with a difference. 

    DIFF 2014 also acknowledges the political reality of contemporary Africa with films such as Timbuktu from Malian master Abderrahmane Sissako, which recounts Timbuktu’s brief occupation by militant Islamic rebels. The mockumentary hybrid They Are the Dogs is set in Morocco in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, while the engagingly authentic semi-autographical film Die Welt is set in Tunisia shortly after the recent Jasmine Revolution. Imbabazi: The Pardon explores the possibilities of reconciliation in the wake of the Rwandan genocide, and Difret examines the potentially destructive role of patriarchal traditions in contemporary Ethiopia.

    Set in Tanzania, the disturbing but visually powerful White Shadow tells the story of a young albino boy named Alias who is targeted for body parts by muti traders. Veve, the latest film from the producers of the award-winning crime drama Nairobi Half Life, documents the double-crossing lives of those trading in khat or ‘veve’, a mildly narcotic local crop. From Moroccan director Abdellah Taia comes Salvation Army, which tells of a young Arab man grappling with notions of family and sexuality. Then there is the highly anticipated film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, set against the difficulties of post-independence Nigeria.

    Coz Ov Moni II: FOKN Revenge, billed as ‘the world’s second first pidgin musical’ is a Ghanaian hop-hop opera from rap duo the FOKN Bois, while B for Boy tells the story of how a Nigerian woman’s life is corrupted by the forces of patriarchy and tradition. 

    SPECIAL FOCUS: 20 Years of Freedom and Democracy

    2014 is the 20th anniversary of the advent of a free and non-racial democracy in South Africa. This year’s programme includes a generous spread of documentaries, both from home and abroad, which celebrates, explores and interrogates the progress that South Africa has made as a country over the last two decades. The 20 Years of Freedom and Democracy programme features an expanded South African documentary programme in response to the large number of high quality doccies currently being produced in the country.  

    The result is a rich and diverse slate of films, including Khalo Matabane’s Nelson Mandela: The Myth and Me and Miners Shot Down, Rehad Desai’s devastating account of Marikana. They are joined by many other films that chronicle lesser known but no less significant stories behind the end of apartheid and the rebirth of South Africa into a new country. 

    Word Down the Line with Poet Lesego Rampolokeng speaking to Gift (Makahafula Vilakazi) RamashiaWord Down the Line with Poet Lesego Rampolokeng speaking to Gift (Makahafula Vilakazi) Ramashia

    The full selection of the 20 Years of Freedom and Democracy programme are 1994 The Bloody Miracle,  Concerning Violence, Fatherland, Freedom Mixtape (1994-2014), Future Sounds Of Mzansi, Gangster Backstage, I,Afrikaner, Letters To Zohra, Miners Shot Down, My Hood, Nelson Mandela: The Myth & Me, One Humanity , The Other Man, Plot For Peace, Rainbow Makers: Tribute To The Frontline States, Shield And Spear, A Snake Gives Birth To A Snake, Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs And The New South Africa and Word Down The Line. 

    UK Focus

    This year’s UK focus is part a UK-South African cultural season taking place over the next two years. In recognition of this season, DIFF presents a diverse snapshot of contemporary British cinema – including the strangely compelling Lilting which tells the story of the triangular relationship between two gay men and one of their mothers, ’71 which is set in Belfast at the beginning of The Troubles and the highly endearing Frank, which chronicles the misadventures of a band of outsider musicians.

    How I Live Now is a post-apocalyptic tale set in rural England in the wake of a nuclear bomb. The Selfish Giant is a Dickensian tale of two working class boys who live on the knife’s edge of poverty and adolescence. Gone Too Far offers a nuanced look at race in contemporary Britain, while Only Lovers Left Alive is the UK-produced downbeat vampire masterpiece from Jim Jarmusch.

    British Documentaries include InRealLife, which explores our relationship with the internet and social networking technology, the real-life heist drama Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers, 20 000 Days On Earth, which documents a fictitious day in the life of much-loved musician Nick Cave, Coach Zoran And His African Tigers which tells of the birth of the South Sudan national soccer team, and the UK/SA coproduction One Humanity, which documents the global anti-apartheid movement from the perspective of the two tribute concerts to Nelson Mandela that took place in London in 1988 and 1990.

    In addition to this focus area in DIFF’s programing, the DIFF UK Focus also includes free public screenings of British films, preceded by a programme of short films from South African filmmakers, courtesy of the South African National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF). These screenings will take place on Friday 18 July, Saturday 19 July, Friday 25 July and Saturday 26 July.

    The UK Focus is supported by the British Council, while the beach screenings form part of the British Council’s Connect ZA programme in partnership with the NFVF.

    World Cinema

    Beyond its strong focus on Africa and South Africa, DIFF is a festival of world cinema and, as is the case every year, this year’s edition is filled with a richly diverse selection of films from around the world. From Sweden comes The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared based on the popular novel by Jonas Jonasson. Amazonia (France/ Brazil) follows the epiphanic journey of Sai, a tame capuchin monkey unaware of the wider natural world until the plane on which he is being transported crashes in the Amazon basin. An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker (Bosnia and Herzegovina/France/Slovenia) follows a Roma couple as they eke out a tenuous existence, and Arwad (Canada) tells the story of Ali, who, after the death of his mother, escapes to the island of Arwad, off the coast of Syria.

    Then there is the Chinese noir film Black Coal, Thin Ice which follows a dissolute former detective who falls under the spell of a widow with a dark secret. Concrete Clouds (Thailand, Hong Kong SAR China) is a complex story about identity and belonging set against the 1997 Asian economic crisis. The Congress (Israel/ Germany/Poland/ Luxembourg/France/Belgium) is the latest left-field masterpiece from Israeli animator Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir), while The Lunchbox (France/Germany/ India) is a luminous tale of an isolated housewife who attempts to reignite her relationship with her husband through her delectably prepared meals. In Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy from Thailand, cinema meets social media in an innovative film that is constructed around 410 consecutive Twitter updates. The Austrian film My Blind Heart follows a young man suffering from a rare genetic disorder as he lives a marginal life in the city of Vienna, and Nuoc 2030 from Vietnam is set in a near-futuristic landscape flooded as a result of global warming.

    Nymphomaniac (Denmark/Germany/ France/Belgium/Sweden), from controversial filmmaker Lars von Trier, is an ambitiously explicit sexual epic while Omar (Palestinian Territories) is a tense political thriller set in the West Bank. Papilio Buddha (India/United States) tells of the university-educated son of a Dalit activist who is politically apathetic until he receives bad treatment at the hands of the state. The Rocket (Australia/Laos/ Thailand) is set in the lush mountain countryside of Laos and chronicles the attempts of a young outsider to overcome his fate. The Rover (Australia/United States) is the latest film from Australian filmmaker David Michôd, director of the 2010 DIFF hit Animal Kingdom, while the American film Wish I Was Here is a sequel of sorts to Zach Braff’s 2004 hit debut Garden State.

    Gender and Sexuality

    As is usually the case, this edition of DIFF has a strong selection of films exploring sexuality and gender issues. 52 Tuesdays chronicles the female-to-male gender transition of a woman from the perspective of her daughter, who visits her mother once a week during the year-long process. The frank yet mercurial Love is Strange tells of two gay New Yorkers who decide to get married after 40 years of living together, and suddenly find themselves separated from each other. The Indian film Qissa blurs the boundaries of gender and genre in its story of girl who is brought up as a boy, while Something Must Break introduces us to the apparently straight Andreas, who finds himself drawn to Sebastian, who is wrestling with the emerging strength of Ellie, the women he feels he must become. 

    Peaches Does Herself is an instant concert film classic and also a neo-queer, post-punk camp extravaganza, with the Canadian electroclash artist directing herself. Eastern Boys follows the shifting relationship between the between a mild-mannered, middle-aged Parisian named Daniel and Marek, a young Eastern European boy who he picks up in a train station. Finally, Salvation Army is an unflinching, poetic study of a young Arab man grappling with notions of family and sexuality. Rendered in filmmaking styles as diverse as the sexuality they document, this is a fascinating selection of films about the edges of sexuality.

    Documentaries

    This year’s selection of documentaries is the largest yet in DIFF’s 35 year history. As well as the rich selection of doccies presented in the 20 Years of Freedom special focus area, there are a number of other local offerings included in the Wild Talk stream. Then there is a stellar selection of documentaries from around the world, collectively presenting a global snapshot of life on earth. We Come as Friends explores the human cost of neo-colonialism in newly independent South Sudan, A World Not Ours provides a deeply compassionate but acerbic glimpse into life in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, and Cairo Drive looks at life in contemporary Cairo from the perspective of its anarchic traffic system. 

    These Birds Walk tells the heart-breaking and cinematically astounding story of a Pakistani orphanage and ambulance service, while The Kill Team is a dark catalogue of illicit killings of civilians by American soldiers in Afghanistan. The King and the People documents the repressive rule of Swaziland’s King Mswati III, Africa’s last remaining absolute monarch, and Life Itself chronicles the life of Roger Ebert, the much loved film critic who died last year. Finally, Prophecy. Pasolini’s Africa and How Strange to be Named Federico present two very different tributes to two of the greatest names in Italian cinema.

    The Encounters-DIFF Connection

    This year DIFF presents several films in association with Encounters Film Festival. These films include Annalet Steenkamp’s I, Afrikaner, Rehad Desai’s Miners Shot Down, Jolynn Minnaar’s Unearthed, Marion Edmund’s The Vula Connection and Abby Ginzberg’ Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa.

    Wavescape Film Festival

    For the ninth year, DIFF partners with Wavescape to bring you a feast of surfing cinema, including 8 features and 11 shorts.  Inspired by such films as Rattle and Hum and Endless Summer, Fading West follows Grammy-winning alternative-rock band Switchfoot as they hunt for surf around the globe. In Land of Patagones two brothers trek to the guano-infested solitude of Patagonia, the far southern home of toothfish and uncharted surf. In Out in the Line Up two gay surfers unite to uncover the taboo of homosexuality in surfing, while Stephanie in the Water tells the story of Stephanie Gilmore who won her first world surfing championship event at the age of 17 on a day off from high school.

    Other Wavescape films include Tidelines, in which a South African crew circumnavigates the world to find waves but also to document how badly plastic debris has impacted our oceans, while McConkey is a tribute to Shane McConkey, the extreme skier.

    Wavescape opens with a free outdoor screening at the Bay of Plenty Lawns on Sunday 20 July, before locating at Ster-Kinekor Musgrave Monday 21 July to Friday 25 July.

    The Films That Made Me 

    This year, for the second time, DIFF presents a repertory section in which film lovers and filmmakers have the opportunity to access a slice of film history. In ‘The Films That Made Me’ section, acclaimed South African director Khalo Matabane presents five films that have been influential in his growth as a filmmaker. The five films that Matabane will present are Krzysztof Kieślowski’s A Short Film About Killing (1988), Denys Arcand’s The Decline Of The American Empire (1986), Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980), Alfred Hitchcock‘s Rear Window (1954) and Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing (1989). After each screening, Matabane will lead a discussion regarding the importance of the film. These screenings will be part of the Talents Durban programme but will also be open to the public

    Wild Talk

    For the second year running, DIFF is host to the Durban Wild Talk Africa showcase of local and international environmentally and wildlife-focused films. The Durban Wild Talk Africa Film Festival and Conference, now in its 9th year, brings a world-class television market and natural history conference to South Africa every two years. After the success of last year’s conference at DIFF, Durban Wild Talk Africa will again present a programme of nature films. The full Wild Talk conference will be back in Durban next year.

    This year, the Wild Talk strand offers entertaining and enlightening viewing for nature enthusiasts, animal-lovers, adrenalin junkies and environmentalists alike. Some not-to-be-missed films include Unearthed, a shocking insight into the world of hydraulic fracking and the dark underbelly of America’s gas industry, Black Mamba: Kiss of Death, in which we witness an hour in the life of the most feared snake in Africa, and Birdman Chronicles, which launches head-first into the adrenaline-charged world of wing-suit flying. DamNation explores the changing attitudes towards dams and the devastating effect of these man-made structures while Expedition to the End of the World is an account of a visit by a group of artists and scientists to the rapidly melting massifs of North-East Greenland.

    Other Wild Talk films include the award-winning Iranian astronaut-inspired Sepideh, The Ghosts in our Machines, Liz Marshall’s photographic exploration into the commodification of animals, an artistic voyage into water with Watermark, and the world premiere of Lady Baboon, which chronicles the life of the woman who single-handedly started the controversial baboon conservation movement in South Africa.

    Architecture Film

    The week after DIFF ends, Durban will be hosting the World Congress of Architects at UIA2014. In acknowledgement of this fact, the festival presents a small stream of films which explore various aspects of architecture. Cathedrals of Culture begins with the question “If buildings could talk, what would they say about us?”, and offers six startling responses from six filmmakers from around the world. Great Expectations presents the grand architectural visions of our time, from the functionalist cities of Le Corbusier to the light-weight structures of Buckminster Fuller to Paolo Soleri’s crystalline villages in the desert. The Human Scale documents how modern cities tend to leave us each alone in an almost infinitely large crowd and suggests that we can build cities in ways that takes human needs for inclusion and intimacy into account. Lastly, Microtopia  investigates various ways in which architects, artists and ordinary problem-solvers are pushing the limits to find answers to the dream of portable, flexible and sustainable housing.

    The architecture stream of programming is presented in partnership with the Architect Africa Film Festival and UIA2014.

     

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  • Michael Fassbender, Sally Hawkins Among 271 Invited to Join Academy

     Sally Hawkins in Blue JasmineSally Hawkins in Blue Jasmine

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 271 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures.  Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2014.

    “This year’s class of invitees represents some of the most talented, creative and passionate filmmakers working in our industry today,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs.  “Their contributions to film have entertained audiences around the world, and we are proud to welcome them to the Academy.”

    The 2014 invitees are:

    Actors
    Barkhad Abdi – “Captain Phillips”
    Clancy Brown – “The Hurricane,” “The Shawshank Redeption”
    Paul Dano – “12 Years a Slave,” “Prisoners”
    Michael Fassbender – “12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”
    Ben Foster – “Lone Survivor,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”
    Beth Grant – “The Artist,” “No Country for Old Men”
    Clark Gregg – “Much Ado about Nothing,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
    Sally Hawkins – “Blue Jasmine,” “Happy-Go-Lucky”
    Josh Hutcherson – “The Hunger Games,” “The Kids Are All Right”
    Julia Louis-Dreyfus – “Enough Said,” “Planes”
    Kelly Macdonald – “Brave,” “No Country for Old Men”
    Mads Mikkelsen – “The Hunt,” “Casino Royale”
    Joel McKinnon Miller – “Super 8,” “The Truman Show”
    Cillian Murphy – “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Inception”
    Lupita Nyong’o – “Non-Stop,” “12 Years a Slave”
    Rob Riggle – “21 Jump Street,” “The Hangover”
    Chris Rock – “Grown Ups 2,” “Madagascar”
    June Squibb – “Nebraska,” “About Schmidt”
    Jason Statham – “Parker,” “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”
    David Strathairn – “Lincoln,” “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

    Casting Directors
    Douglas Aibel – “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Immigrant”
    Simone Bär – “The Monuments Men,” “The Book Thief”
    Kerry Barden – “August: Osage County,” “Dallas Buyers Club”
    Nikki Barrett – “The Railway Man,” “The Great Gatsby”
    Mark Bennett – “Drinking Buddies,” “Zero Dark Thirty”
    Risa Bramon Garcia – “Speed,” “Wall Street” 
    Michelle Guish – “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Nanny McPhee”
    Billy Hopkins – “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” “Disconnect”
    Ros Hubbard – “Romeo & Juliet,” “The Mummy”
    Allison Jones – “The Way, Way Back,” “The Heat”
    Christine King – “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” “Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith”
    Beatrice Kruger – “To Rome with Love,” “The American”
    Marci Liroff – “Mean Girls,” “Pretty in Pink”
    Debbie McWilliams – “Skyfall,” “Quantum of Solace”
    Joseph Middleton – “TheTwilight Saga: New Moon,” “Legally Blonde”
    Robi Reed – “For Colored Girls,” “Do the Right Thing”
    Kevin Reher – “Monsters University,” “Finding Nemo”
    Paul Schnee – “August: Osage County,” “Dallas Buyers Club”
    Gail Stevens – “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Lucinda Syson – “Gravity,” “Fast and & Furious 6”
    Fiona Weir – “J. Edgar,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
    Ronnie Yeskel – “The Sessions,” “Atlas Shrugged Part 1”

    Cinematographers
    Sean Bobbitt – “12 Years a Slave,” “The Place beyond the Pines”
    Philippe Le Sourd – “The Grandmaster,” “Seven Pounds”
    James Neihouse – “Hubble 3D,” “Nascar: The IMAX Experience”
    Masanobu Takayanagi – “Out of the Furnace,” “Silver Linings Playbook”
    Bradford Young – “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” “Pariah”

    Costume Designers 
    William Chang Suk Ping – “The Grandmaster,” “In the Mood for Love”
    Pascaline Chavanne – “Renoir,” “Augustine”
    Daniela Ciancio – “The Great Beauty,” “Il Divo”
    Frank L. Fleming – “Draft Day,” “Monster’s Ball” 
    Maurizio Millenotti – “Hamlet,” “Otello”
    Beatrix Aruna Pasztor – “Great Expectations,” “Good Will Hunting”
    Karyn Wagner – “Lovelace,” “The Green Mile”

    Designers
    William Arnold – “Lovelace,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”
    K.K. Barrett – “Her,” “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
    Susan Benjamin – “Saving Mr. Banks,” “The Blind Side”
    Bill Boes – “The Smurfs 2,” “Fantastic Four”
    Tony Fanning – “Contraband,” “War of the Worlds”
    Robert Greenfield – “Priest,” “Almost Famous”
    Marcia Hinds – “I Spy,” “The Public Eye”
    Sonja Brisbane Klaus – “Prometheus,” “Robin Hood”
    David S. Lazan – “Flight,” “American Beauty”
    Diane Lederman – “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” “Tower Heist”
    Heather Loeffler – “American Hustle,” “Silver Linings Playbook”
    Christa Munro – “Jack Reacher,” “Erin Brockovich”
    Andy Nicholson – “Gravity,” “The Host” 
    Adam Stockhausen – “12 Years a Slave,” “Moonrise Kingdom”

    Directors
    Hany Abu-Assad – “Omar,” “Paradise Now”
    Jay Duplass – “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” “Cyrus”
    Mark Duplass – “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” “Cyrus”
    David Gordon Green – “Joe,” “Pineapple Express”
    Gavin O’Connor – “Warrior,” “Miracle”
    Gina Prince-Bythewood – “The Secret Life of Bees,” “Love and Basketball”
    Paolo Sorrentino – “The Great Beauty,” “This Must Be the Place”
    Jean-Marc Vallée – “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Young Victoria” 
    Felix van Groeningen – “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” “The Misfortunates”
    Denis Villeneuve – “Prisoners,” “Incendies”
    Thomas Vinterberg – “The Hunt,” “The Celebration”

    Documentary
    Malcolm Clarke – “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life,” “Prisoner of Paradise”
    Dan Cogan – “How to Survive a Plague,” “The Queen of Versailles”
    Kief Davidson – “Open Heart,” “Kassim the Dream”
    Dan Geller – “The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden,” “Ballets Russes”
    Dayna Goldfine – “The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden,” “Ballets Russes”
    Julie Goldman – “God Loves Uganda,” “Gideon’s Army”
    Sam Green – “Utopia in Four Movements,” “The Weather Underground”
    Gary Hustwit – “Urbanized,” “Helvetica”
    Eugene Jarecki – “The House I Live In,” “Why We Fight”
    Brian Johnson – “Anita,” “Buena Vista Social Club”
    Ross Kauffman – “E-Team,” “Born into Brothels”
    Morgan Neville – “20 Feet from Stardom,” “Troubadours”
    Matthew J. O’Neill – “Redemption,” “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province”
    Rithy Panh – “The Missing Picture,” “S-21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine”
    Lucy Massie Phenix – “Regret to Inform,” “Word Is Out”
    Enat Sidi – “Detropia,” “Jesus Camp”
    Molly Thompson – “The Unknown Known,” “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer”
    Cynthia Wade – “Mondays at Racine,” “Freeheld”

    Executives
    Adrian Alperovich 
    Sean Bailey 
    Len Blavatnik
    Nicholas Carpou
    Nancy Carson
    Charles S. Cohen
    Jason Constantine
    Peter Cramer
    William Kyle Davies
    Christopher Floyd
    David Garrett
    David Hollis
    Tomas Jegeus
    Michelle Raimo Kouyate
    Anthony James Marcoly
    Hiroyasu Matsuoka
    Kim Roth
    John Sloss

    Film Editors
    Alan Baumgarten – “American Hustle,” “Gangster Squad”
    Alan Edward Bell – “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “The Amazing Spider-Man”
    Dorian Harris – “The Magic of Belle Isle,” “The Mod Squad”
    Sabrina Plisco – “The Smurfs 2,” “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”
    Tatiana S. Riegel – “Million Dollar Arm,” “The Way, Way Back”
    Julie Rogers – “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl”
    Mark Sanger – “Gravity”
    Joan Sobel – “Admission,” “A Single Man”
    Crispin Struthers – “American Hustle,” “Silver Linings Playbook”
    Tracey Wadmore-Smith – “About Last Night,” “Death at a Funeral”
    Joe Walker – “12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”
    John Wilson – “The Book Thief,” “Billy Elliot”

    Makeup Artists and Hairstylists
    Vivian Baker – “Oz The Great and Powerful,” “Conviction”
    Adruitha Lee – “Dallas Buyers Club,” “12 Years a Slave” 
    Robin Mathews – “Dallas Buyers Club,” “The Runaways”
    Anne Morgan – “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” “A Little Bit of Heaven”
    Gloria Pasqua-Casny – “The Lone Ranger,” “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”

    Members-at-Large
    Peter Becker
    Jeff Dashnaw 
    Kenneth L. Halsband
    Jody Levin
    Tom MacDougall
    Chuck Picerni, Jr.
    Spiro Razatos 
    Mic Rodgers
    Kevin J. Yeaman

    Music
    Kristen Anderson-Lopez – “Frozen,” “Winnie the Pooh”
    Stanley Clarke – “The Best Man Holiday,” “Boyz N the Hood”
    Earl Ghaffari – “Frozen,” “Wreck-It Ralph”
    Steve Jablonsky – “Lone Survivor,” “Ender’s Game”
    Robert Lopez – “Frozen,” “Winnie the Pooh”
    Steven Price – “Gravity,” “The World’s End”
    Tony Renis – “Hidden Moon,” “Quest for Camelot”
    Angie Rubin – “Pitch Perfect,” “Sex and the City”
    Buck Sanders – “Warm Bodies,” “The Hurt Locker”
    Charles Strouse – “All Dogs Go to Heaven,” “Annie”
    Eddie Vedder – “Eat Pray Love,” “Into the Wild”
    Pharrell Williams – “Despicable Me 2,” “Fast & Furious”

    Producers
    Jason Blumenthal – “Hope Springs,” “Seven Pounds”
    Dana Brunetti – “Captain Phillips,” “The Social Network”
    Megan Ellison – “American Hustle,” “Her”
    Sean Furst – “Daybreakers,” “The Cooler”
    Nicola Giuliano – “The Great Beauty,” “This Must Be the Place”
    Preston Holmes – “Waist Deep,” “Tupac: Resurrection”
    Lynette M. Howell – “The Place beyond the Pines,” “Blue Valentine”
    Anthony Katagas – “12 Years a Slave,” “Killing Them Softly”
    Alix Madigan – “Girl Most Likely,” “Winter’s Bone”
    Paul Mezey – “The Girl,” “Maria Full of Grace”
    Stephen Nemeth – “The Sessions,” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”
    Tracey Seaward – “Philomena,” “The Queen”
    John H. Williams – “Space Chimps,” “Shrek 2”

    Public Relations
    Larry Angrisani
    Nancy Bannister
    Christine Batista
    Karen Hermelin
    Marisa McGrath Liston
    David Magdael
    Steven Raphael
    Bettina R. Sherick
    Dani Weinstein

    Short Films and Feature Animation
    Didier Brunner – “Ernest & Celestine,” “The Triplets of Belleville”
    Scott Clark – “Monsters University,” “Up”
    Pierre Coffin – “Despicable Me 2,” “Despicable Me”
    Esteban Crespo – “Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me),” “Lala”
    Peter Del Vecho – “Frozen,” “The Princess and the Frog”
    Kirk DeMicco – “The Croods,” “Space Chimps”
    Doug Frankel – “Brave,” “WALL-E”
    Mark Gill – “The Voorman Problem,” “Full Time”
    David A. S. James – “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” “Megamind”
    Fabrice Joubert – “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” “French Roast”
    Jean-Claude Kalache – “Up,” “Cars”
    Jason Katz – “Toy Story 3,” “Finding Nemo”
    Jennifer Lee – “Frozen,” “Wreck-It Ralph”
    Baldwin Li – “The Voorman Problem,” “Full Time”
    Nathan Loofbourrow – “Puss in Boots,” “How to Train Your Dragon”
    Lauren MacMullan – “Get a Horse!,” “Wreck-It Ralph”
    Tom McGrath –  “Megamind,” “Madagascar”
    Dorothy McKim – “Get a Horse!,” “Meet the Robinsons”
    Hayao Miyazaki – “The Wind Rises,” “Spirited Away”
    Ricky Nierva – “Monsters University,” “Up”
    Chris Renaud – “Despicable Me 2,” “Despicable Me”
    Benjamin Renner – “Ernest & Celestine,” “A Mouse’s Tale (La Queue de la Souris)”
    Michael Rose – “Chico & Rita,” “The Gruffalo”
    Toshio Suzuki – “The Wind Rises,” “Howl’s Moving Castle”
    Selma Vilhunen – “Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitta? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?),” “The Crossroads”  
    Anders Walter – “Helium,” “9 Meter”
    Laurent Witz – “Mr. Hublot,” “Renart the Fox”

    Sound
    Niv Adiri – “Gravity,” “The Book Thief”
    Christopher Benstead – “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,” “Gravity”
    Steve Boeddeker – “All Is Lost,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
    Beau Borders – “Million Dollar Arm,” “Lone Survivor”
    David Brownlow – “Lone Survivor,” “The Book of Eli”
    Chris Burdon – “Captain Phillips,” “Philomena”
    Brent Burge – “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
    André Fenley – “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” “All Is Lost”
    Glenn Freemantle – “Gravity,” “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Greg Hedgepath – “Frozen,” “The Incredible Hulk”
    Craig Henighan – “Noah,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”
    Tony Johnson – “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” “Avatar”
    Laurent M. Kossayan – “Red Riding Hood,” “Public Enemies”
    Thomas L. Lalley – “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” “Star Trek Into Darkness”
    Ai-Ling Lee – “Godzilla,” “300: Rise of an Empire”
    Stephen Morris – “Monsters University,” “Fruitvale Station”
    Jeremy Peirson – “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “Looper”
    Mike Prestwood Smith – “Divergent,” “Captain Phillips”
    Alan Rankin – “Iron Man 3,” “Star Trek”
    Oliver Tarney – “Captain Phillips,” “Philomena”
    Chris Ward – “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”

    Visual Effects
    Gary Brozenich – “The Lone Ranger,” “Wrath of the Titans”
    Everett Burrell – “Grudge Match,” “Pan’s Labyrinth”
    Marc Chu – “Noah,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
    David Fletcher – “Sabotage,” “Prisoners”
    Swen Gillberg – “Ender’s Game,” “Jack the Giant Slayer”
    Paul Graff – “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Identity Thief”
    Alex Henning – “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Hugo” 
    Evan Jacobs – “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Olympus Has Fallen”
    Chris Lawrence – “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Gravity” 
    Eric Leven – “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2,” “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1”
    Steven Messing – “Godzilla,” “Oz The Great and Powerful”
    Ben Matthew Morris – “Lincoln,” “The Golden Compass”
    Jake Morrison – “Thor: The Dark World,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
    Eric Reynolds – “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”
    David Shirk – “Gravity,” “Elysium”
    Patrick Tubach – “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
    Bruno Van Zeebroeck – “Lone Survivor,” “Public Enemies”
    Tim Webber – “Gravity,” “The Dark Knight”
    Harold Weed – “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” “Star Trek”

    Writers
    Chantal Akerman – “A Couch in New York,” “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles”
    Olivier Assayas – “Summer Hours,” “Irma Vep”
    Craig Borten – “Dallas Buyers Club”
    Scott Z. Burns – “Side Effects,” “Contagion”
    Jean-Claude Carrière – “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie”
    Steve Coogan – “Philomena,” “The Parole Officer”
    Claire Denis – “White Material,” “Beau Travail”
    Larry Gross – “We Don’t Live Here Anymore,” “48 Hrs.”
    Mathieu Kassovitz – “Babylon A.D.,” “Hate (La Haine)”
    Diane Kurys – “For a Woman,” “Entre Nous”
    Bob Nelson – “Nebraska”
    Scott Neustadter – “The Spectacular Now,” “(500) Days of Summer”
    Jeff Pope – “Philomena,” “Pierrepoint – The Last Hangman”
    John Ridley – “12 Years a Slave,” “Undercover Brother”
    Paul Rudnick – “In & Out,” ”Jeffrey”
    Eric Warren Singer – “American Hustle,” ”The International”
    Melisa Wallack – “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Mirror Mirror”
    Michael H. Weber – “The Spectacular Now,” “(500) Days of Summer”
    Terence Winter – “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Get Rich or Die Tryin’”

    Associates
    Matt Del Piano
    Joe Funicello
    Robert Hohman
    Paul Christopher Hook
    David Kramer
    Joel Lubin
    David Pringle
    Melanie Ramsayer
    Beth Swofford
    Meredith Wechter

    Each year Academy members may sponsor one candidate for membership within their branch.  New member application reviews take place in the spring.  Applications for the coming year must be received by March 19, 2015.

    New members will be welcomed into the Academy at an invitation-only reception in September.

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  • Official Lineup Released for the 2014 Animation Block Party film festival

    animation block party film festival brooklyn ny lineup 2014

    The official lineup is now available online for the eleventh annual Animation Block Party film festival taking place July 24-27 2014 at Rooftop Films and BAMcinématek in Brooklyn, NYC. This summer’s edition of ABP includes a free outdoor show on Opening Night
    at Arts Brookfield, special programs from Animation Breakdown Roundup and Titmouse 5 Second Day – plus a 35mm screening of the classic film, SpaceJam at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

    Animation Block Party presents a diverse compilation of extraordinary animated shorts, including exclusive content from Nickelodeon Animation and (mtv)other.

  • ABP 2014 Intro / Street Justice (Ben Li / Burbank / 60 seconds)
  • Fluffy McCloud (Connor Finnegan / Dublin & London / 2:54 min)
  • Worldword (Peter Glantz and Becky Stark / Los Angeles / 30 seconds)
  • In The Beginning (Arthur Metcalf / New York / 2:31 min)
  • Blankfillers (Celeste Lai and Peyton Skyler / NYC / 3:10 min)
  • Love Ball: Ball on Fire (Dana Sink / Harrisburg, PA / 3:35 min)
  • Amasia (Guillaume Renier, Fabien Kretschmer, Gaëlle Séguillon et Adrien Bisiou / ArtFX / 7:25 min)
  • Goodbye Rabbit, Hop Hop (Caleb Wood / MN / 4 min)
  • Wind (Robert Löbel / Berlin / 4 min)
  • Pest / Nuisible (Tom Haugomat, Bruno Mangyoku / Paris / 12 min)
  • Payada pa’ Satan (Antonio Balseiro and Carlos Balseiro / Argentina / 7:31 min)
  • A Tale of Momentum & Inertia (Kameron Gates / Laika Studios / 1:10 min)
  • The Divide (Brent Sievers / RISD / 3:49 min)
  • Le Sens Du Toucher (Jean-Charles Mbotti Malolo / France / 14:05 min)
  • Papa (Natalie LaBarre /SVA / 6:20 min)
  • ABP 2014 Outro / Bewitched Barry (Chelsea Manifold / Burbank / 60 seconds)

    • *Nickelodeon Animation TBA

     

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  • NewFest – The New York LGBT Film Festival – Announces Its 2014 Lineup; Karim Aïnouz’s FUTURO BEACH to Open, Bruce LaBruce’s GERONTOPHILIA to Close Fest

     GerontophilaGerontophila

    NewFest, New York’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Film Festival announced the complete feature film lineup for its 26th edition (July 24-29). NewFest is an annual showcase of the best of LGBT cinema, featuring works from renowned filmmakers as well as exciting discoveries. With a lineup of 16 narrative and five documentary features, this year’s group of films continues to carry out the festival’s mission of supporting diverse film communities and voices from around the world.

    Lesli Klainberg, Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Executive Director said, “This marks the fourth year of having NewFest at the Film Society and we couldn’t be happier to continue our collaboration with Outfest. LGBT films and filmmakers are a vital part of cinema worldwide, and we are thrilled to offer this showcase on our screens each year.”

    “In the year following spectacular LGBT civil rights advances across the country, the dynamic and fresh slate of 2014 NewFest films decisively demonstrates that artists and storytellers lead the charge in creating social change,” said Kristin Pepe (KP), Outfest’s Director of Programming.

    Kicking off the 2014 festival is the New York City Premiere of Karim Aïnouz’s Futuro Beach, a visually stunning, emotionally resonant tale about three Brazilian men struggling across oceans of love, loss, and heartache. Closing out the festival is the New York premiere of Bruce LaBruce’s highly anticipated Gerontophila, a profound comedy about a handsome teen who refuses to feel shame about his unquenchable appetite for older men.

    Among the many other highlights from the 2014 feature lineup are Stephan Haupt’s The Circle (winner of the Teddy Award at the 2014 Berlinale); Hong Khaou’s Lilting (a Sundance 2014 selection starring Ben Whishaw); Patrik-Ian Polk’s Blackbird (starring Mo’Nique and Isaiah Washington); Carter Smith’s Jamie Marks is Dead (a Sundance 2014 selection starring Cameron Monaghan, Judy Greer, and Liv Tyler); Sophie Hyde’s 52 Tuesdays (Sundance 2014, Berlinale 2014); and the world premiere of Kate Kunath’s We Came to Sweat: The Legend of Starlite (a timely documentary about Brooklyn’s oldest gay bar).

     

    Films, Description & Schedule
    Screenings will take place at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, 165 W. 65th St., New York, NY 10023 (between Broadway and Amsterdam), unless otherwise noted.

    Opening Night

    Futuro Beach
    Karim Aïnouz, Brazil/Germany, 2013, DCP, 106m
    German and Portuguese with English subtitles

    When Brazilian lifeguard Donato fails to save a swimmer from drowning, he seeks out the victim’s friend Konrad, a handsome German biker. The two men begin a passionate affair, and Donato soon decides to follow Konrad to Berlin. Years later, their seemingly peaceful life is threatened by a visitor from Donato’s past. Director Karim Aïnouz (Madame Satã) delivers a visually stunning, emotionally resonant tale about three men struggling across oceans of love, loss, and heartache. A Strand Releasing release.

    July 24, 7:00pm (preceded by Achievement Award presentation)

     

    Closing Night
    NY Premiere
    Gerontophilia
    Bruce LaBruce, Canada, 2013, DCP, 81m

    Lake refuses to feel shame about his unquenchable appetite for older men. The handsome teen defiantly signs up as an orderly at a local nursing home and quickly falls for Mr. Peabody, a charming, flirtatious soul with one last wish. Forget everything you know about filmmaker Bruce LaBruce: in what is easily his most romantic work to date, he dares us to look beyond fetish to embrace the beauty of all stages of life.

    July 29, 7:00pm (Q&A with Bruce LaBruce)

     

    NY Premiere
    Age of Consent
    Todd Verow & Charles Lum, USA, 2014, HDCAM, 88m

    The history of the HOIST, London’s first and only gay sex fetish bar, follows the cultural evolution of gay life and sex in modern London through AIDS, gentrification, and the ongoing political struggle to decriminalize homosexual activity in the UK.

    July 26, 11:30pm

     

    Alec Mapa: Baby Daddy
    Andrea James, USA, 2013, 78m

    In his hilarious new performance film, 2014 Outfest Fusion Achievement Award Winner and gifted comedian Alec Mapa (Switched at Birth)—accompanied by his family—takes his audience on a roller-coaster ride through the challenges and occasional triumphs of becoming a daddy. You’ll laugh and even cry as “America’s Gaysian Sweetheart” mixes life stories with his signature brand of sass. Contains adult language and catastrophic waffles.

    July 27, 5:00pm (Q&A with Andrea James)

     

    NY Premiere
    Blackbird
    Patrik-Ian Polk, USA, 2013, 102m

    A high-school senior named Randy (newcomer Julian Walker) and his band of queer friends fight for a life outside the constrictions of their small Southern Baptist town. Blackbird’s a powerful film, co-starring Academy Award winner Mo’Nique (Precious) and Isaiah Washington (Blue Caprice) as Randy’s conflicted parents, in which friends—black, white, straight, gay, and all things in between—discover firsthand both the rewards and consequences of growing up as outsiders.

    July 25, 9:30pm (Q&A with Patrik-Ian Polk)

     

    NY Premiere
    Boys
    Mischa Kamp, The Netherlands, 2014, DCP, 78m
    Dutch with English subtitles

    After making it onto the track team, 15-year-old Sieger instantly grows close to fellow runner Marc. Sieger, dealing with family troubles, and Marc, outgoing and engaging, fall in love over the course of a summer spent running, swimming, and stealing kisses in the forest. But Sieger must weigh how his widowed father feels against the joy and freedom he finds in Marc’s arms in this adorable romance.

    July 24, 10:00pm

     

    NY Premiere
    The Circle
    Stefan Haupt, Switzerland, 2014, DCP, 101m
    German with English subtitles

    A Teddy Award winner at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, The Circle captures an extraordinary romance set against the backdrop of Switzerland’s thriving post-WWII underground gay movement. Director Stefan Haupt has fashioned a gorgeous hybrid of a film, uncovering a vibrant love story between a singer and schoolteacher who bravely defied the constraining laws of their era.

    July 26, 10:30am

     

    Cupcakes*
    Eytan Fox, 2013, Israel, DCP, 90m
    Hebrew with English subtitles

    During their annual get-together to watch the kitschy Universong competition, one of a sextet of friends is nursing a broken heart. The other five spontaneously compose and perform a song to cheer her up, which leads to a viral video that transforms these six nonprofessionals into Universong competitors. As colorful and infectious as a pop song, the latest from Eytan Fox (Yossi) is a delirious sugar rush of a comedy.

    *July 28, 7:00pm (Screening at the JCC, 344 Amsterdam Avenue)

     

    NY Premiere
    Dual
    Nejc Gazvoda, Slovenia/Croatia/Denmark, 2013, DCP, 102m
    English, Slovenian, and Danish with English subtitles

    Iben, a free-spirited Danish woman, gets stuck in Slovenia overnight when her connecting flight gets canceled. She asks Tina, a young lesbian minivan driver, to show her around Ljubljana. Both women are at a crossroads: Tina has a big interview for a bank job in the morning, and Iben is harboring a dark secret. Romantic feelings slowly build between them, and they hatch a plan to run away together.

    July 27, 12:00pm

     

    NY Premiere
    52 Tuesdays
    Sophie Hyde, Australia, 2013, DCP, 114m

    Sixteen-year-old Billie (played by Australian rising star Tilda Cobham-Hervey) is blindsided by the news that her mother is planning to transition from female to male and that, during this time, Billie will live at her father’s house. Billie and her mother, now called James, agree to meet every Tuesday during their year apart. As James undergoes changes and becomes less emotionally available, Billie covertly explores her own identity and sexuality with two older schoolmates, testing the limits of her own power, desire, and independence. A Kino Lorber Release.

    July 24, 4:00pm

     

    The Foxy Merkins
    Madeleine Olnek, USA, 2013, DCP, 81m

    Margaret is a down-on-her-luck lesbian hooker-in-training. She meets Jo, a beautiful, self-assured grifter who’s a pro at picking up women, even though she considers herself a card-carrying hetero. The duo hits the streets, encountering bargain-hunting housewives, double-dealing conservatives, husky-voiced seductresses, shopaholic swingers, as well as a mumbling erotic-accessory salesman (Alex Karpovsky of Girls). Writer-director Madeleine Olnek (Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same) melds her singular brand of comedy with the buddy-film genre to pay homage to and riff on iconic male-hustler films.

    July 25, 7:00pm (Q&A with Madeleine Olnek)

     

    NY Premiere
    I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole*
    Jim Tushinski, USA, 2013, 90m

    Wakefield Poole was a respected Broadway choreographer and ballet star until he rocked the mainstream world by becoming a groundbreaking hardcore gay filmmaker during the tumultuous 1970s. At the time, anyone making what the government considered pornography was at risk of prosecution. Poole challenged the system with his iconic Boys in the Sand, becoming famous for the defiant artistry he instilled in dozens of sexually explicit works, whose impact forever changed adult film.

    *July 28, 9:00pm (Screening at the JCC, 344 Amsterdam Avenue)

     

    NY Premiere
    I Am Happiness on Earth
    Julián Hernández, Mexico, 2013, 115m
    Spanish with English subtitles

    Julián Hernández, one of Mexico’s premier queer filmmakers (Raging Sun, Raging Sky), returns with this tale of a film director struggling with the line between his sexually charged reality and equally arousing cinematic creations. Will Emiliano be able to sustain his relationship, or will his lust for beauty and meaning lead him elsewhere? Furious couplings between gorgeous men include an exhilaratingly explicit play-within-a-play. Hernández’s boldly poetic romance compares with such films as Fellini’s 8½, Godard’s Contempt, and others exploring the connections between love, sex, creativity, and filmmaking.

    July 26, 9:00pm

     

    NY Premiere
    Jamie Marks Is Dead
    Carter Smith, USA, 2014, DCP, 100m

    When the ghost of bullied teenager Jamie Marks (Noah Silver) appears to Adam (Cameron Monaghan), the straitlaced track star becomes caught between two worlds. Despite a budding romance with Gracie (Morgan Saylor), who found Jamie’s body, Adam is fascinated by the sexy spirit, who leads him into a ghostly underworld. Also featuring Judy Greer and Liv Tyler, this supernatural-horror love story—a Sundance gem—delivers a poetic tale of sexuality and the tough choices it creates.

    July 28, 9:30pm (Q&A with Carter Smith)

     

    NY Premiere
    Lilting
    Hong Khaou, UK, 2013, DCP, 86m
    English and Mandarin with English subtitles

    The sudden death of Kai, a young London man, leaves his Chinese Cambodian mother Junn (Pei-pei Cheng) and his boyfriend Richard (Ben Whishaw) profoundly grieving. Feeling a strong sense of responsibility for Kai’s only family member, Richard reaches out to her. Though Junn speaks little English, her dislike of Richard is plain, and she responds with stony resistance. Since they share no common language, Richard hires a translator to facilitate communication, and the two improbable relatives attempt to reach across a chasm of misunderstanding through their memories of Kai. Writer-director Hong Khaou’s moving and intimate debut dances between the real and imaginary to express the unspeakable loss that both characters experience. Boasting delicate performances by both Whishaw and Cheng, this Sundance award-winner is a perceptive meditation on the connection between two human souls, revealing that what separates us can also bind us together. A Strand Releasing release.

    July 27, 7:30pm

     

    NY Premiere
    Lyle
    Stewart Thorndike, USA, 2014, DCP, 65m

    Lyle, Stewart Thorndike’s sinister ode to Rosemary’s Baby, finds the perfect mom-to-be in Gaby Hoffmann. Her electrifying performance as Leah, a pregnant lesbian confronted by an unspeakable evil, brings out a primal terror that’s difficult to shake. With dark humor and razor-sharp camerawork, Thorndike takes audiences into a growing nightmare as Leah begins to question the motives of her partner, friends, and neighbors.

    July 28, 7:00pm (Q&A with Stewart Thorndike)

     

    NY Premiere
    The Third One
    Rodrigo Guerrero, Argentina, 2013, DCP, 70m
    Spanish with English subtitles

    An attractive older couple stumbles upon a flirtatious young man in a chat room and, after teasing some skin, convinces him to come over to their apartment for dinner. With fumbling honesty and no shortage of sexiness, The Third One celebrates the awkwardness and euphoria of a one-night stand gone right, culminating in an explicit, 10-minute threesome that’s as erotic as it is playful.

    July 29, 9:30pm (Q&A with Rodrigo Guerrero)

     

    NY Premiere
    Tiger Orange
    Wade Gasque, USA, 2014, HDCAM, 76m

    Two estranged gay brothers attempt to make amends in Wade Gasque’s charming small-town drama. Set against the sun-kissed fields of Central California, and anchored by strong performances from Mark Strano and porn-star-turned-leading-man Frankie Valenti (aka Johnny Hazzard), Tiger Orange pits two diametric opposites against each other—the closeted introvert versus the out-and-proud hunk. The result is a blunt, playful meditation on queer sibling rivalry and the childhood bonds that force us together.

    July 26, 6:30pm (Q&A with Wade Gasque)

     

    NY Premiere
    The Way He Looks
    Daniel Ribeiro, Brazil, 2014, DCP, 96m
    Portuguese with English subtitles

    Set to the bouncy beats of Belle and Sebastian, this euphoric, sun-kissed coming-of-age fable—a sensation at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival, where it won a Teddy Award and FIPRESCI prize—dances entirely to its own tune. Stuck fending off bullies and over-protective parents, Leonardo spends his days allowing his best friend Giovana to drag him around town. Being blind has always been an inconvenience for Leonardo, but his angsty adolescence gets a lift when the handsome and smooth-talking Gabriel turns down numerous offers from ogling girls to hang with Leonardo after school. The longer they spend together, the more apparent their shared attraction becomes—not just to them but to a spurned Giovana as well. As social pressure mounts on both to fit within their confined social boxes, the two must decide whether to ignore their feelings or to throw caution to the wind and admit that they might actually be falling in love. A Strand Releasing release.

    July 29, 4:30pm (Q&A with Daniel Ribeiro)

     

    World Premiere
    We Came to Sweat: The Legend of Starlite
    Kate Kunath, USA, 2014, DCP, 70m

    When Brooklyn’s oldest black gay bar, the Starlite Lounge, is faced with eviction, the community decides to fight back. Will they be able to save this pre-Stonewall safe haven? Or is gentrification unstoppable? Kate Kunath’s timely portrait of a community banding together to preserve their culture and history is a stirring must-see.

    July 25, 4:30pm (Q&A with Kate Kunath)

     

    NY Premiere
    What It Was
    Daniel Armando, USA, 2013, 85m

    In Daniel Armando’s multilayered film, Adina, a successful Latina actress, returns to New York in the aftermath of her sister’s death and her marriage’s collapse. Unable to face her mother, she finds herself in a fog, drifting through the days. Memories dissolve into the present as she tumbles through a series of intense, complex connections with a sexy, butch body artist, a young college student, and a former girlfriend. With confident directing, assured performances, and intuitive editing and cinematography, What It Was masterfully conveys the emotional textures of Adina’s waking dream of a life.

    July 26, 4:00pm (Q&A with Daniel Armando)

     

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  • Fall Theatrical Release Set for Alex Ross Perry’s Acclaimed Dark Comedy LISTEN UP PHILIP, Starring Jason Schwartzman and Elisabeth Moss

     listen up philip

    Tribeca Film today announced it has acquired North American rights to Alex Ross Perry’s acclaimed dark comedy, Listen Up Philip starring Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, Krysten Ritter, Joséphine de La Baume, Dree Hemingway, and Jess Weixler. Written and directed by Perry (2013 Independent Spirit Award-nominee for The Color Wheel), and shot on 16mm film by cinematographer Sean Price Williams, the film played to rave reviews when it premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. It will be released theatrically beginning October 17, 2014, with video-on-demand platforms following on October 21, 2014.

    A complex, intimate, and highly idiosyncratic comedy, Listen Up Philip is a literary look at the triumph of reality over the human spirit. Anger rages in Philip (Jason Schwartzman) as he awaits the publication of his sure-to-succeed second novel. He feels pushed out of his adopted home city by the constant crowds and noise, a deteriorating relationship with his photographer girlfriend Ashley (Elisabeth Moss), and his indifference to promoting his own work. When Philip’s idol Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce) offers his isolated summer home as a refuge, he finally gets the peace and quiet to focus on his favorite subject — himself.

    “Driven by a superbly acidic performance by Jason Schwartzman and equally fuelled by its allusions to and by inspiration from Philip Roth, director/writer Alex Ross Perry’s Listen Up Philip is a revelation by a uniquely gifted filmmaker,” said Geoff Gilmore, Chief Creative Officer, Tribeca Enterprises.

    “Life isn’t full of easy answers or situations where things are wrapped up in a neat little package, and I set out to make a film that reflects this. That scared some people. Tribeca Film has proven themselves fearless by partnering with us for the release of Listen Up Philip. In this day and age, distribution for independent films is a real broken system, probably worse than it has ever been. So it is incredibly exciting to be working with people who actually care not only about ‘movies’ and ‘stories’ but about honest to god Cinema, I mean serious Cinema that leaves audiences heavier. They’ve put their support behind me and this film and they believe in it in a way that I hope will allow Listen Up Philip to be seen by as many people as possible,” said Alex Ross Perry.

    Listen Up Philip is produced by Katie Stern and Joshua Blum at Washington Square Films and Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston & David Lowery of Sailor Bear. The deal was negotiated for Tribeca Film by Nick Savva, with John Sloss of Cinetic Media on behalf of the filmmakers.

    http://youtu.be/Jkjn5ICqmJI

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  • David McMahon’s Slamdance Hit SKANKS to NY Premiere at Rooftop Films

     skanks

    Rooftop Films will present the New York premiere of David McMahon’s 2014 Slamdance hit Skanks on Saturday, June 28. Set in the football-obsessed Bible belt town of Birmingham, Alabama, Skanks follows a motley troupe of amateur drag performers as they stage an original musical, ‘Skanks In A One Horse Town’, all the while coming closer together. 

    When men playfully model baby bottle nipples taped to their chest (in order to give the appearance of “tiny little titties dried up from drug use”) and dance to a song that goes, “get into the groove…stick it up your duke” you know this isn’t your average behind the scenes film. Skanks, a one-of-a-kind documentary, follows a wildly talented and highly inappropriate band of misfits as they rehearse for a drag musical entitled, “Skanks in a One Horse Town.”

    Their venue is “Theatre Downtown,” a small community theater and a haven from football, Christianity, and the town’s conservative beliefs, stuffed inside an old antique store in bible-belt Birmingham, Alabama. Though their city is often unwelcoming, the cast bonds to form a family of sorts and never lose their raucous sense of humor.

    skanks2

    The musical itself is about three women, played by men, who accidentally travel from 1978 Studio 54 to 1878 Deep Hole Texas via a disco ball time machine. Along with fellow time travelers Anita Bryant, Conway Twitty, and Meatloaf, the skanks must stop a local baron from demolishing the town to make room for the new railroad before they return to 1978 and New York City.

    As uproarious and ribald as the musical is, the onstage histrionics in Skanks might be overshadowed by the real lives of the amateur performers, especially the writer, producer and director of the play Billy Ray Brewton’s seriously concerning addiction to soda. Director David McMahon takes us on an intimate and wildly hilarious journey into the world of Theatre Downtown, inviting us behind the scenes of the show and also into the unique cast and crew’s homes. Ultimately, Skanks is about the redemptive power of theatre. As one of the actors says, “When I’m on stage, and the audience is right there… it’s bliss.” 

    The Skanks premiere will feature performances by the cast of “Skanks in a One Horse Town”, as well as appearances by some of NYC’s favorite drag artists, Maddelynn Hatter and Pusse Couture! Add in an after party sponsored by New Amsterdam Vodka & Gin, and we could be looking at the wildest, most glitterific film event of the summer! 

     http://youtu.be/eEiz63GcgmM

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  • Matt Longmire’ Panhandler Doc CARDBOARD to Be Featured at Portland’s Northwest Film Center

    cardboard matt longmire 

    CARDBOARD, the latest work by Seattle-based filmmaker Matt Longmire will get a well deserved screening at Portland Oregon’s Northwest Film Center on July 3rd. Director Matt Longmire will be in attendance to introduce his film.

    Encountering panhandlers with their rumpled cardboard signs asking for help is an everyday occurrence in Seattle. Many are veterans, many have issues with mental illness, and most make between $10 and $60 a day. Longmire was inspired to interview many of them to understand the corrugated trails that led to these street corners. What is their background? How do they survive? Seattle’s mayor, Mike McGinn, who made the highly controversial decision to veto the city’s ban on panhandling, offers political context balanced with countless other outlooks from Seattle’s citizens. (89 mins.)

    http://youtu.be/zDVprC9ET3U

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  • Sheffield Doc/Fest announces Audience 2014 Award Winners; STILL THE ENEMY WITHIN Wins Audience Award

    STILL THE ENEMY WITHINSTILL THE ENEMY WITHIN

    The Audience Award winner for the 21st edition of Sheffield Doc/Fest is STILL THE ENEMY WITHIN directed by Owen Gower and produced by Sinead Kirwan and Mark Lacey. This archive-rich film looks back to Margaret Thatcher’s battle with the unions and specifically the 1984 miners strike. Told primarily from the retrospective of the mining communities the Doc/Fest screenings received a standing-ovation from Sheffield audiences and delegates. This World Premiere screening at Doc/Fest was one of a number of films at the festival that marked the 30th anniversary on 18th June of the so-called Battle of Orgreave.

     OUR CURSEOUR CURSE

    The Short Film audience award goes to OUR CURSE directed by Tomasz Sliwinski, produced by Maciej Slesicki, an intimate and moving self-portrait about a young couple whose newborn child has been diagnosed with Ondine’s curse meaning he must be attached to a ventilator when he sleeps. Our Curse also won the Student Doc Award.

    The Interactive audience award goes ASSENT directed and produced by Oscar Raby which enables the user to witness the execution of a group of prisoners by the military regime in Chile in 1973, as witnessed by the filmmaker’s father.

    This year’s first ever In The Dark Sheffield Audio Award, which recognises a new golden age of radio and audio documentary storytelling both in podcasting and traditional radio, was awarded to Pejk Malinovski’s EVERYTHING, NOTHING, HARVEY KEITEL about a man who struggles to meditate when he realises he’s sitting next to the actor Harvey Keitel.

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  • Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014 Awards Announced, Attacking The Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime Wins Special Jury Prize

    Special Jury prize was awarded to Attacking The Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime Special Jury prize was awarded to Attacking The Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime

    The Sheffield Doc/Fest announced the 2014 awards, including the Special Jury Award, Sheffield Innovation Award, Sheffield Green Award, Sheffield Youth Jury Award, Sheffield Student Doc Award, Sheffield Short Doc Award, The Tim Hetherington Award and the first ever Peter Wintonick Award.

    Sheffield Doc/Fest’s Special Jury prize was awarded to Attacking The Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime (directors Jacqui Morris & David Morris, United Kingdon/Canada, 2014, 99mins).

    On behalf of the Special Jury Dawn Porter said: “We unanimously found this film to be an elegant examination of complex themes. We appreciated his film on all levels – it is a work approached with relevance and rigor, a historical film that feels contemporary and engaging, blossoms like a novel, and is surprising when least expected, epic in its scope, traversing decades and exploring big themes while revealing intimate details.” For the jury, Attacking the Devil is “a call to arms inviting us to examine our past as it celebrates and reminds us of the critical value of journalism.”

    Sheffield Green Award was awarded to UnearthedSheffield Green Award was awarded to Unearthed

    The Sheffield Green Award was awarded to Unearthed (Dir. Jolynn Minnaar, South Africa, 2014, 90mins).  

    Accepting her award Jolynn Minnaar said “I dedicate this award to filmmakers out there who are telling stories that matter. No matter how hard it is, keep going – it is worth it, I promise!”

    The Special Jury also gave honorable mention to Night Will Fall (dir. Andre Singer, United Kingdom/Unites States/Israel, 2014, 75mins), which Dawn praised saying, “This intellectually bracing film reveals the power of documentary and why it matters. It challenges us to never take anything for granted. With skill and grace this film is a remarkable achievement reminding of the need to never forget.”

    The Sheffield Innovation Award was awarded to A Short History of the Highrise (Dir. Katerina Cizek, Canada/United States, 2013, 17mins)

    Sheffield Youth Jury Award was awarded to The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz Sheffield Youth Jury Award was awarded to The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz

    The Sheffield Youth Jury Award was awarded to The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (Dir. Brian Knappenberger, United States, 2014, 105mins)

    The Youth Jury also gave a special mention to Happiness (Dir. Thomas Balmès, France/Finland, 2013, 76mins) and thanked Hussain Currimbhoy and Sheffield Doc/fest for the “unique and life-changing” experience of sitting on a festival jury.

    The Sheffield Green Award was awarded to Unearthed (Dir. Jolynn Minnaar, South Africa, 2014, 90mins).  Accepting her award Jolynn Minnaar said “I dedicate this award to filmmakers out there who are telling stories that matter. No matter how hard it is, keep going – it is worth it, I promise!”

    The Sheffield Student Doc Award was awarded to Our Curse (Dir. Tomasz Sliwinski, Poland, 2013, 28mins)

     The Sheffield Short Doc Award, sponsored by the London Short Film Festival, was awarded to Amanda F***ing Palmer on the Rocks(Dir. Ondi Timoner, United States, 2014, 18mins)

    Tim Hetherington Award was awarded to Profession: Documentarist Tim Hetherington Award was awarded to Profession: Documentarist

    The Tim Hetherington Award was awarded to Profession: Documentarist (Directors: Shirin Barghnavard, Firouzeh Khosrovani, Farhnaz Sharifi, Mina Keshavarz, Sepideh Abtahi, Sahar Salahshoor and Nahid Rezaei, Iran, 2014, 80mins)

    Presented by Tim’s mother Judith Hetherington and Oli Harbottle (Dogwoof), the award celebrates the life and legacy of photojournalist and humanitarian Tim Hetherington, whose objectives as a filmmaker were to highlight the plight of people so often ignored by the world and mainstream media.

    Accepting the award Sharin Barghnavard declared it an honour “to accept this precious award from Tim’s mother” and remembered Tim’s legacy as someone who “dedicated his own life to pass beyond the borders.” 

    Peter Wintonick Award, celebrating activist filmmaking, was awarded to Vessel Peter Wintonick Award, celebrating activist filmmaking, was awarded to Vessel

    The first ever Peter Wintonick Award, celebrating activist filmmaking, was awarded to Vessel (Dir. Diana Whitten, United States, 2014, 88mins)

    This year the Inspiration Award was awarded to Laura Poitras. Poitras sent a message dedicating her award to Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Jacob Appelbaum, William Binney, Julian Assange and Sarah Harrison.

    Lifetime Achievement was presented to Roger GraefLifetime Achievement was presented to Roger Graef

    The Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014 award for Lifetime Achievement was presented to Roger Graef. Accepting the award Roger said “it’s true that when we take people’s pictures, we capture their souls and that is a great responsibility” and paid tribute to “those souls who have been brave enough to let us capture them.” He continued: “the privilege of fifty years of working in this industry has been to share the private lives of a great many people.”

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  • ‘Hellion’ and ‘Alive Inside’ take top honors at 14th annual deadCENTER Film Festival

    HellionHellion

    A portrait of a family on the brink of dissolution set against the haunting backdrop of the refineries of Southeast Texas, and a heartwarming story about the healing power of music, have won top honors at the 14th annual deadCENTER Film Festival, held June 11-15 in downtown Oklahoma City.

    “Hellion,” directed by Kat Candler, was selected as the Grand Jury Narrative Feature category winner, and Michael Rossato-Bennett’s “Alive Inside” won top honors in the Grand Jury Documentary Feature category.

    Other award-winners included:

    “Hellion” – Grand Jury Narrative Feature

    Director Kat Candler won Best Narrative Short at last year’s deadCENTER Film Festival for Black Metal and also screened the short film Hellion here before debuting the feature at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Hellion is a portrait of a family on the brink of dissolution set against the haunting backdrop of the refineries of Southeast Texas and stars Emmy Award winner Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) and Oscar nominee Juliette Lewis.

    “Alive Inside” – Grand Jury Documentary Feature

    “Alive Inside” debuted at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and became an internet sensation when a clip from the film was shared millions of times online. “Alive Inside” follows Dan Cohen who, on a whim, brings iPods to a nursing home to work with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. To everyone’s surprise- residents with memory loss ‘awaken’ when they hear music from their past.

    Special Jury Prize: “The Case Against 8,” a behind-the-scenes look inside the case to overturn California’s ban on same-sex marriage. Directed by Ben Cotner and Ryan White.

    Special Jury Oklahoma: “Sewing Hope,” the story of Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe and her fight to bring hope back to her nation after 25 years of terror in northern Uganda at the hands of Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army. Directed by Derek Watson.

    Best Oklahoman Film: “The Posthuman Project,” the story of a group of high school friends who go on a rock-climbing trip to celebrate their graduation, the teens receive a genetic boost that gives them superhero abilities. Directed by Kyle Roberts.

    The Posthuman Project is the feature film debut of Emmy Award winning music video director and NewsOK videographer Kyle Roberts. When Denny and four of his closest friends go on a rock-climbing trip to celebrate their high school graduation, the teens receive a genetic boost that gives them superhero abilities. With amazing special effects and an inspirational story, The Posthuman Project is exciting fun for the entire family.

    Best Narrative Short: “The Karman Line,” the story of a mother who contracts an unusual illness and begins to rise gradually into the air. Directed by Oscar Sharp.

    Best Documentary Short: “Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace,” follows New York-based painter Kehinde Wiley as he steps out of his comfort zone to create a series of paintings of women and reveal a new look at beauty in the 21st Century. Directed by Jeff Dupre.

    Best Student Film: “Playtime,” the story of a 10-year-old British expat living with his mother in a suburban neighborhood in Kuwait. Directed by Hamad Al-Tourah.

    Best Short Screenplay: “Tattoo,” by R. Wayne Gray.

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  • “Hard to Get” Selected to Open 35th Durban International Film Festival

    Hard To Get

    The Durban International Film Festival taking place July 17 to 27, 2014, announced that the opening film at DIFF 2014 will be Hard To Get from first-time feature director Zee Ntuli and produced by Junaid Ahmed and Helena Spring.

     The film tells the story of TK, a handsome young womanizer from a small community who falls for a sexy, reckless young thief named Skiets. Thrust into Joburg’s criminal underworld TK realises that his best bet is to trust her and hang on for dear life.

    The action romance explores the universal theme of love in the very specific context of contemporary South Africa. At its heart, it is simply a story of two young South Africans embarking on the universal adventure of falling in love, symbolically set against the dangerous, unpredictable, cruel and ruthless backdrop of Joburg’s criminal underworld. Says Zee Ntuli, “The criminal gauntlet parallels the emotional journey of TK and Skiets, providing a metaphor for how scary falling in love can be. Ultimately it is a hopeful story, one which carries the message that love is worth fighting for.”

    Talking about the film, Festival Manager, Peter Machen, said, “I am very excited about Hard To Get. It’s a beautifully made film that works on every level and will satisfy commercial and art-house audiences alike. I also think that it’s going to make instant stars of its two leads Thishiwe Ziqubu and Pallance Dladla, who are both electrifying, as well as director Zee Ntuli, who is virtually guaranteed a bright future on the global filmmaking stage on the basis of this first feature.”

    Machen continued, “With the production team of Helena Spring and Junaid Ahmed behind the film, I have a strong suspicion that this is going to be the one that cracks open local audience’s desire to watch strong local film products. I have no doubt that audiences will walk out of the theatre electrified, and will be filled with excitement about the rest of the festival. All of this makes Hard To Get the perfect opening film for DIFF 2014. Co-producer Helena Spring said, “Junaid and I are thrilled to be launching major new talent with Hard to Get. We are incredibly proud of the work that director Zee Ntuli, his team and cast, have delivered. There is already a great deal of buzz around the film and we have no doubt that a bright future awaits them.”

    Hard To Get

    Junaid Ahmed mentioned that Hard To Get is the first of a slate of films that he and Spring are producing which showcase the talent of previously marginalised black filmmakers in South Africa. Ahmed went on to praise the assured and distinctive directorial debut of Ntuli, as well as that of co-writer TT Sibisi. “Hard To Get heralds the arrival of exciting new voices in South African cinema”. 

    Although, Hard To Get is Ntuli’s first feature, he has already made his mark on the local film scene. He has written for the award-winning hit show Intersexions and has directed a humorous 40sec advert entitled Grandfather for Ster-Kinekor’s Vision Mission initiative. He has also directed music videos for the bands Crash Car Burn and Wrestlerish, as well having worked on Soul City and the crime drama Mshika-shika. Ntuli studied at AFDA, the School Of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance, winning the award for Best Film during all four years of studies. His 24 minute short film, Bomlambo (Those Of The Water), won the award for best fantasy film at the New York International Film Festival. Ntuli was nominated for best short film at the 2012 SAFTAs and has already had his short films screened at festivals in South Africa and around the world. His 12 minute short In Return (Emasisweni) was nominated as the South African candidate for the Student Oscars in 2010.

    The Durban International Film Festival takes place from 17 – 27 July 2014. The festival includes more than 200 theatrical screenings and a full seminar and workshop programme, as well as the Wavescape Film Festival, the Wild Talk Africa Film Festival, and various industry initiatives, including the 7th Talent Campus Durban (in cooperation with the Berlin Talent Campus) and  the 5th Durban FilmMart co-production market (in partnership with the Durban Film Office).  For more information go to www.durbanfilmfestival.co.za

    The 35th Durban International Film Festival is organised by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (a special project of the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Humanities, Cheryl Potgieter) with support from the National Film and Video Foundation, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development & Tourism, KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission, City of Durban, German Embassy, Goethe Institut, Industrial Development Corporation, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture and arange of other valued partners.

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  • Film Society of Lincoln Center Unveils Lineup for 2014 Latinbeat; Opens with Fellipe Barbosa’s CASA GRANDE

    Casa Grande

    The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today the complete lineup for the 15th edition of Latinbeat, the premier annual showcase for contemporary cinema from Latin America, running from July 11-20. This year’s festival combines personal, risk-taking works by mostly emerging filmmakers with award-winning productions. This juxtaposition, and the breadth of countries represented, speak to the growth of a film industry that began in only a few countries about 15 years ago and has now spread throughout the entire region. We are excited to celebrate this fertile state of affairs with an eclectic selection that attests to the region’s continued cinematic renewal.

    “Fifteen years after the reawakening of Latin American cinema in the 1990s there is greater and more varied film production, more interconnectedness among national cinemas, more organized governmental funding, more young people studying film, and more film festivals in the region,” said Latinbeat programmer Marcela Goglio. “However, it is exciting to see that the formal exploration and sense of urgency of those early films persists in the works of many new directors today, giving the region a sense of perpetual cinematic rebirth.”

    Opening Night kicks off with Fellipe Barbosa’s tender, coming-of-age feature debut, Casa Grande, from Brazil, starring newcomer Thales Cavalcanti as a teen trying to transcend the limitations of his upper-class existence. A hit at Rotterdam earlier this year, the film also stars a mix of Brazilian TV stars and nonprofessional actors to highlight class differences and racism. The lineup also includes additional intimate portraits of the teenage experience, notably by filmmakers making their mark with bold feature debuts. In Argentinian director Matías Lucchesi’s Natural Sciences (which won the Grand Prix  of the Generation Kplus at the recent Berlinale), a young teenage girl escapes her boarding school to search for the father she never knew. In Samuel Kishi Leopo’s vivid We Are Mari Pepa, from Mexico, a group of high-spirited 16-year-olds in a punk band spend their time lazily rehearsing their one completed song, writing a second song, and debating whether or not to participate in an upcoming battles-of-the-bands competition.

    All About the Feathers

    Experimental formats and unconventional methods of filmmaking and casting are some notable traits that run through this year’s energetic lineup. Neto Villalobos’s debut feature, All About the Feathers, a screwball comedy that incorporates mostly nonprofessional actors. Telenovela superstar Miguel Ferrari’s zany and sentimental feature debut reminiscent of the early works of Almodóvar, My Straight Son,  has the distinction of being the first Venezuelan film to openly deal with gay and transgender issues and features performances from some of the country’s top television  personalities. Director Jose Luis Valle’s second feature, The Searches, featuring a cast of renowned Mexican actors, was shot in black-and-white in seven days, with a budget of $1,500. Brazilians Marcelo Gomes and Cao Guimarães based their beautiful The Man of the Crowd on an Edgar Allan Poe tale and presents the visual film in an unusual format of 3:3.5 ratio, which makes it resemble a Polaroid.

     

    FILM DESCRIPTIONS & SCHEDULE

     Opening Night 
    Casa Grande
    Fellipe Barbosa, Brazil, 2014, DCP, 114m
    Portuguese with English subtitles
    Set in Rio, Fellipe Barbosa’s long-awaited fiction debut is a clear-eyed, empathetic portrait of a teenager who strives to transcend the limitations of his upper-middle-class family life. Seventeen-year-old Jean (an outstanding Thales Cavalcanti) contends with pressure from parental expectations, university entrance exams, and the surprising discovery of a family financial crisis in this tender, beautifully written coming-of-age story that deftly explores class differences and racism in Brazil today.
    Friday, July 11, 6:15pm 
    Monday, July 14, 8:30pm 

    All About the Feathers / Por las plumas
    Neto Villalobos, Costa Rica, 2013, DCP, 85m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    Chalo is inseparable from his friend Rocky, a fighting cock he acquires to bring some excitement into his boring life as a security guard. But what Rocky brings is in fact an unexpected set of screwball adventures. Cockfighting is illegal but has a passionate following in the small Costa Rican town where Chalo lives (the film tastefully keeps the action offscreen). Neto Villalobos’s winning, dryly funny debut feature renders that world with genuine flavor and charm by a cast made up of mostly nonprofessional actors.
    Thursday, July 17, 6:30pm 

    Cristo Rey
    Leticia Tonos Paniagua, Dominican Republic, 2013, DCP, 96m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    In 2011, Leticia Tonos Paniagua was the first Dominican woman to direct a feature film in her country. Her follow-up, a contemporary take onRomeo and Juliet, tackles with sensitivity and a sense of urgency the tough subject of Haitian immigration in the Dominican Republic, where about one million exiles currently reside. Set in the Cristo Rey neighborhood, which is rampant with crime and police corruption, this love story between a teenager of mixed Haitian/Dominican descent and a drug lord’s sister powerfully combines a genuine feel for barrio life with the quick pace and sense of impending danger of a thriller, all the while exploring the implications of racism and xenophobia on this island divided in two.
    Saturday, July 12, 6:30pm
    Sunday, July 13, 4:00pm 

    Dust on the Tongue / Tierra en la lengua
    Rubén Mendoza, Colombia, 2014, DCP, 89m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    Despite family patriarch Don Silvio’s abusive behavior toward friends and family, his magnetism has allowed him to remain the center of attention his entire life. When his death is imminent, he makes an unusual request—he asks two of his grandchildren to help him die. Will they take revenge? With an impeccable direction of actors and a seamless flow between fiction, documentary, and mockumentary, Mendoza displays surprising skill and boldness as he navigates the sensitive subject of veiled hostility between parents and offspring.
    Saturday, July 12, 4:00pm
    Sunday, July 13, 8:40pm

    Holiday / Feriado 
    Diego Araujo, Ecuador/Argentina, 2013, DCP, 82m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    Sixteen-year-old Juan Pablo travels to the remote family hacienda in the Andes, where his uncle, who is involved in a corruption scandal, has taken refuge with his wife and teenage children. It is the carnival holiday of 1999, days before the collapse of Ecuador’s banking system. There, Juan Pablo meets Juano, an enigmatic, self-assured heavy-metal fan from the nearby pueblo, who opens his eyes to an entirely new, liberating world. As his country and family is heading for the abyss, the two boys’ budding friendship develops into a fragile romance, and Juan Pablo is forced to define himself against his chaotic surroundings. Daniele Luppi, who has collaborated with Norah Jones, Jack White, Ennio Morricone, and Gnarls Barkley, composed the score.
    Tuesday, July 15, 4:30pm
    Wednesday, July 16, 6:15pm 

    The Man of the Crowd / O Homem das Multidões
    Marcelo Gomes & Cao Guimarães, Brazil, 2013, DCP, 95m
    Portuguese with English subtitles
    Loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe’s story of the same name, Marcelo Gomes and Cao Guimarães—two of the most interesting filmmakers working in Brazil today—have crafted an elegant, parsimonious, and formally impeccable story of Juvenal, a lonely train driver in Belo Horizonte, and his encounter with Margo, a station controller. Emphasizing the theme of alienation in Poe’s story (and revealing Guimarães’s work as a visual artist), the two directors opted for an unusual format, about a 3:3.5 ratio, which intriguingly makes the film resemble a Polaroid. Juvenal and Margo, who each embody a different form of urban solitude, have been brought together in this beautifully composed ode to friendship. A Curator Films Release.
    Saturday, July 19, 1:00pm
    Sunday, July 20, 6:15pm

    Mateo
    Maria Gamboa, Colombia/France, 2014, DCP, 86m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    Sixteen-year-old Mateo infiltrates a theater group in the violent neighborhood where he lives, and reports on the political activities of its members. But his perspective on the nature of their creative work begins to shift when he falls for a beautiful girl in the troupe. Gamboa’s tough but spirited music-infused tale is based on real-life experiences.
    Sunday, July 13, 1:30pm
    Tuesday, July 15, 6:30pm

    The Militant / El lugar del hijo
    Manuel Nieto, Uruguay, 2013, DCP, 121m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    Ariel, a student leading a 2002 occupation at a Montevideo university, receives news of his father’s death in Salto. Leaving the city and all its protests and solidarity movements behind, Ariel embarks on a very personal journey as he settles into the tranquil countryside—an area under-explored in Uruguayan cinema—and learns that he has to manage his father’s inheritance, including his debts and a lover who’s still living in his house. In this fascinating story of rebirth, Nieto crafts a clever metaphor for the country of Uruguay, which its youth will someday inherit and have to learn how to manage, in their own search for restoration.
    Thursday, July 17, 8:45pm 
    Friday, July 18, 4:00pm 

    My Straight Son/Azul, No Tan Rosa  
    Miguel Ferrari, Venezuela, 2013, 35mm, 113m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    Famous telenovela actor Miguel Ferrari’s debut feature, which won Best Iberoamerican Film at this year’s Goya Awards (the Spanish Oscars), is the first Venezuelan film to openly deal with gay and transgender issues—still mostly taboo in the country. While telling the story of the romantic relationship between a fashion photographer (Guillermo García) a handsome surgeon (Sócrates Serrano), the film also explores with great panache and lots of heart an array of other topics, including teenage love, homophobia, and what it’s like to be a gay parent to an estranged teenage son. Proudly sentimental and reminiscent of Almodóvar’s early melodramas, but also taut, polished, and sexy, My Straight Son features performances by many of Venezuela’s TV personalities. A TLA Releasing release.
    Thursday, July 17, 3:30pm
    Saturday, July 19, 8:30pm

    Natural Sciences / Ciencias Naturales
    Matías Lucchesi, Argentina/France, 2014, DCP, 71m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    Determined to find the father she never knew, 12-year-old Lila (Paula Hertzog) escapes her remote boarding school tucked away in the impressive Sierra de Córdoba mountains. This sweet coming-of-age story about love and perseverance won Berlin’s Generation Kplus Grand Prix as well as Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Actress at the Guadalajara Film Festival this year.
    Friday, July 11, 9:15pm 
    Monday, July 14, 6:20pm 

    Paradise / Paraíso
    Mariana Chenillo, Mexico, 2013, DCP, 105m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    Mariana Chenillo’s sophomore feature displays a warmth and delight in life that couldn’t be further from the dark humor of her acclaimed debut, Nora’s Will (Latinbeat ’09). This unpretentious romantic comedy about a happy overweight couple from the suburban middle-class neighborhood Satelite (the “paradise” of the title) takes refreshingly unexpected turns, as their move to Mexico City launches them both on a journey of self-discovery.
    Friday, July 18, 9:00pm 
    Sunday, July 20, 3:30pm 

    Reimon 
    Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina/Germany, 2014, DCP, 72m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    Documentary and fiction are almost indistinguishable in this minimalist but powerfully eloquent film by the director of El custodio and Un mundo misterioso. Moreno closely observes the daily routines of Reimon, a young woman from northeastern Argentina who commutes long distances from her suburban neighborhood to her job cleaning houses in Buenos Aires. In one of these homes, a young couple read passages from Marx’s Das Kapital out loud as she dusts and cooks… And though the film is practically silent, staying true to Reimon’s introspective cadence, the juxtaposition of her daily reality with that of her employers says it all.
    Friday, July 18, 6:45pm 
    Sunday, July 20, 8:30pm 

    Root / Raiz 
    Matías Rojas Valencia, Chile, 2013, DCP, 87m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    In this hypnotic story of redemption and rebirth, a young woman embarks on a road trip through lush remote locations in southern Chile to find the father of a recently orphaned child. Having just returned from the city to the hostile environment of her home in Puerto Varas, Amalia leaves again with 9-year-old Cristobál on a dilapidated truck. The two clash, bond, and grieve in the almost mystical qualities of the region’s breathtaking natural beauty. In his impressive debut feature, Matías Rojas Valencia tells an intensely moving story with very few elements, skillfully incorporating the natural setting as a mirror through which we can witness the characters’ deep inner transformations.
    Saturday, July 12, 1:30pm
    Wednesday, July 16, 8:30pm

    The Searches / Las búsquedas
    Jose Luis Valle, Mexico, 2013, DCP, 77m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    The parallel stories of a widow and a widower come together in the elegant and sober second feature by the award-winning Jose Luis Valle, a director of Salvadoran-Mexican descent. Made in just seven days, and shot in black-and-white, with a budget of $1,500, the film exhibits that a large part of Valle’s talent resides in his capacity to tell a taut, polished, and intriguing story with the fewest of elements—great and renowned Mexican actors notwithstanding (Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Arcelia Ramírez, Gabino Rodríguez). Chance, revenge, solitude, and redemption are some of the themes explored by this small gem of a film.
    Saturday, July 19, 6:00pm 

    The Summer of Flying Fish / El verano de los peces voladores
    Marcela Said, Chile/France, 2013, DCP, 95m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    Don Francisco is celebrated for the effective if increasingly violent ways he employs to exterminate the carp that overpopulate the artificial lake on his property in the majestically beautiful areas of Curarrehue, Coñaripe, and Liquiñe in southern Chile. His beloved 16-year-old daughter, Manena, seems to be the only one aware of the growing tension surrounding them, as the demands of the Mapuche Indians that have lived and worked in the area for centuries have gone unheard for too long. Said brings her sharp observational skills as a documentarian to this fiction/nonfiction hybrid, working on location with nonprofessional actors to create a quietly powerful denunciation of environmental destruction and social injustice. But she also succeeds in crafting a moving and vivid youth drama through Manena’s tricky predicament, caught between loyalty to her family and to what she knows is right.
    Sunday, July 13, 6:30pm
    Monday, July 14, 4:00pm

    We Are Mari Pepa / Somos Mari Pepa
    Samuel Kishi Leopo, Mexico, 2013, DCP, 95m
    Spanish with English subtitles
    As the school year ends, the 16-year-olds who make up the title punk band are free to skateboard, play soccer, and rehearse the one—obscene yet catchy—song they’ve written. Samuel Kishi Leopo vividly captures the carefree spirit of the teenagers’ summer vacation, with closely observed, carefully drawn characters and a pitch-perfect score (by his brother Kenji Kishi). The summer finally ends and the leisurely days—palpitating with music, desire, and camaraderie—give way to reality, bringing this vibrant portrait of youth at a pivotal moment full circle.
    Saturday, July 12, 9:00pm 
    Tuesday, July 15, 8:30pm
     

     

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